The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-11-18
SPARKS EXTINGUISHBD /!

VIZ OUtlVlo u t0o OVQU4oo4V004
Of the General Land Office,
and nails It to the fence
with neatness and
dispatch.
Secretary Lamar has ut last got
tired of the miserable laundering and
insolence of Commissioner Sparks, and
has written him scathing letter, at
the same time informing the President
that he must either get new secre-
tary of the Interior or new Commits
sioner of the Land Office. The letter
to Sparks is too long for our columns
but we give few paragraphs to show
the tenor of it. 1t opens as follows:
Sir: 1 have just received a COM
munication bearing this date (changed
by erasure and Interpolation from q
previous date) addressed to me by you
and will try to answer 1t at once, as the
matter to which it relates has already
been unnecessarily detained too long.
Fortunately I will be able to do this
more conveniently because every
point submitted has been the subject
of reconsideration, having been pre-
scented through the columns of the
press, whose enterprise put them In
possession of these points before I was
apprised that the decision referred to
in your letter had incurred your disap-
prevail and met with your displeasure.
have neither the disposition to
enter upon discussion with subor-
dinate nor to engage With him at this
instant In gladiat0rial contest,
especially 80 in q matter in which he
has received my carefully matured in
structions, q matter of pressing impor-
lance of my public duties. In no other
way can the functions of q public
than for the chief to command and
the subordinate to obey. Your excuse
for this extraordinary communication
Is that an argumentative report Of
yours as to the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas road has not been brought to my
attention, and that the Omaha cases
were therefore before me without cita-
ton of authority in support of your
adjustment and without argument in
behalf of the United States. In this
last assumption you are in error and
the reverse of your statement is the
fact.
You commence by advising me that
my decision in the Omaha case, render
ed, as you assert, without the benefit
of your counsel, was in direct antag.
onism to any decision Of the depart
ment.
After referring at length to the case
in question, (and every word is knife
thrust) the Secretary continues:
Not content with elaborate criticism
of every point in the Omaha case, you
extend your criticism to all my former
decisions touching the same grant and
extending over q period of more than
a year. Declining to dis
cuss with you these past decisions, I
certainly did SO instruct you in my
recent decision of October Z, 1887, and
you did not even pretend to have mis-.
understood the meaning Of my instruc.
tiOns. You conclude your paper with
another elaborate criticism of my de-
cisi0n upon the branch line of the
Omaha road.
It seems, however. to have escaped
your attention that it was neither my
purpose nor my duty in communica-
ting to you my construction of this
grant to assume the task Of convincing
you of the correctness of these instruc-
tons by elaboration of all decided cases
applicable to the subject. I had con.
ceived it my duty as head of this de-
partment, aud having strictly in view
my oath of office, to direct you as to
what duties 1 required you to perform.
I had also conceived it to be equally
your duty under the same obligations
to obey my instructions or withdraw
yourself from the duty of so doing in
the only way recognized under the
laws and usages of public life in civil.
lied countries; especially 40 when 1
was myself but acting in direct con.
formity to a recent act of congress
which imposes upon me the exclusive
duty of causing these grants to be
adjusted. 1t therefore only remains
for me on this point to dispose of your
elementary quotations of legal maxims
by informing you that they are in my
opinion entirely irrelevant.
After declining to "waste time" by
entering into discussion of Supreme
Court decisions and former rulings of
the Interior Department, the Secretary
closes his letter with the following
scalp.lifter:
Under the circumstances it is due to
an orderly and decorous conduct of the
government, important to the public
interest and the common cause con-
fided in part to our hands by the Presi-
dent and to the personal regard that we
should both entertain for him that he
shall be allowed to choose . Secretary
Of the Interior who will conform the |
administration to your opinions or to
appoint commissioner 0f public lands |
who will administer his bureau in |
harmony ofepirit and concert of action |
with the chief of the department. and |
without putting him to the necessity of
more decisive action on his part. This |
shall submit to the Presi. |
dent at the came time that this paper |
will be handed to you.
NWDaA nNn~Rv